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Intraday Market Update, Wednesday, 06/27/2001 09:00:00 AM ET

Stock Futures Mixed Ahead Of Fed Meeting

by Jeffrey Canavan

HAVING TROUBLE PRINTING?

Stock futures are mixed this morning ahead of the Federal Reserve
policy-makers decision on interest rates. Overall, the Fed is
expected to cut rates by 50, with out an outside chance at 25.
Leaving rates unchanged is a very remote possibility, and would
send the markets tumbling. According to the CNBC Briefcase
Indicator, which predicts the size of the rate cut based on the
size of Greenspan's briefcase, is suggesting no change in
interest rates. The Dow is up 15 points, the Nasdaq is down
1.50, and probably will remain in that range until 2:15PM EST.

On the earnings front, about 6 companies warned about or reported
lower than expected earnings, 3 companies came in as expected,
and 3 companies managed to post better than expected earnings.
One of those was Palm. Well, they didn't actually report a
profit, but the loss was better than expected! The company did
add that it would attain profitability by the second quarter of
2002, by selling more Palm Pilots, cutting costs, and reducing
its work force. PALM is up $1 in pre-market trading.

Another company that is up $1 is Vitesse Semiconductor
(NASD:VTSS). But Vitesse warned that they would now post a net
loss of 6 cents a share, instead of the previously expected
profit of 3 cents a share.

Bond yields are down slightly, but like stocks, probably won't
move much until later today.